Solar Water Heaters for COVID Relief

Community residing in the high lands of Himalayas face multiple challenges for their survival. Though their struggles come in various forms, the solutions come in one form- Nature! Relying on the nature-based solutions is their only choice. But the harsh weather conditions make it even more difficult for these locals to rely on just local solutions. Availability of warm water is one such challenge that they face throughout the year. The communities face hardships while arranging warm water for their usage, especially in the winters, but in the summers as well. 

 
Wooden twigs used for heating water

In Ladakh, the locals heavily rely on the use of locally available fossil fuels for multiple uses. For the basic needs such as cooking food, heating water, keeping their place warm communities heavily rely on cowdung and wood fetched from surrounding of the village. In many parts of Ladakh, firewood also serves as the sole source for cooking food as well. However, consumption of wood for warm water alone is much more up to 500 kgs per year for a family of 5. This translates to roughly 900 kgs of CO2 emission per year. One key point to note is, this is caused just by one family in one hamlet out of the 100+ villages of Ladakh. 

Solar and Ladakh

This challenge demanded a solution that is affordable, easy to use, suitable to local set up, needs minimum maintenance, and is long term. Luckily in Ladakh, the skies are clear for more than 300 days annually. Majority of Ladakh experiences higher irradiance than normal, implying an untapped/unused source of energy.  This creates an opportunity to harvest this solar energy for various challenges faced by the community, one of which being the warm water availability. This brings Solar water heaters into the picture. 

Ladakh relies on tourism for development and livelihood and in the past one year, there has seen almost zero tourism due to the ongoing pandemic. This has further added to the challenges that already existed for the locals.  

Solar Water Heater in Ladakh

Model of Execution

GHE, in line with its vision of empowering the locals and sustainable development took up the task of building upon the capacity of solar water heaters in Ladakh. Since GHE has had presence in Ladakh for a long period of time and also shares a special bond with the local communities. This enabled GHE and the local communities to work on a solution together. The team at GHE started surveying the villages identifying potential beneficiaries for solar water heaters all across Ladakh. These villagers were identified and vetted in partnership with the local administration and councillors. The beneficiaries were selected based on a number of factors, such as remoteness, requirement of the household and potential impact on the household

 
GHE team installing solar water heaters

The Implementation

Once these beneficiaries were identified, the task was to make this initiative community owned and give them a sense of responsibility for the same. This was done through a partnership model with the communities, where the beneficiary paid a certain fixed amount of the total cost of the solar water heater (average cost of solar water heater is $200). This brought the sense of ownership and responsibility within the community, which was needed for long term use and maintenance model. This sum collected from the communities, enabled GHE to further re-invest in the communities for further other development projects. The community understood the importance and significance of this investment, which they all happily agreed to make. 

 
Family members(kids) volunteering to help

Once the beneficiaries were finalized, the GHE team of went to transport and install these solar water heaters in the winter months. The team went to the different regions of Ladakh and installed solar water heaters. The team worked in extreme temperatures, during snowfalls, and even during the nights. This was done so that the villagers could make the instant switch from burning firewood to using clean solar energy for warm water. This instant switch has made its impact visible for these remote communities. The solar water heaters can provide instantaneous warm water in larger quantities than before. This meant, that the villagers had more warm water available throughout the year without burning any wood.  

 
Monks using solar water heaters for warm water even at -20 Degrees Celcius

The Impact

By using solar water heaters, these communities are now off-setting carbon emissions as well. Each solar water heater has replaced the traditional method of wood burning and further offsets approx. 2000 Kgs of CO2 every year. This is a big step towards reducing the carbon footprint of these remote communities and preserving their fragile ecosystems. The low initial cost of setting up these water heaters, combined with minimal maintenance over the years makes them a great alternative to the conventional method as well. GHE engineers are regularly in touch with the beneficiaries to ensure the smooth functioning of these solar water heaters and are always available for any repair/maintenance work needed. GHE has been able to install more than 100 solar water heaters in 45 villages impacting lives of hundreds of people and offsetting tones of carbon annually. 

These solar water heaters are further helping these communities to create an ecosystem, where they can leverage tourism for development and livelihood in future. Continuous supply of warm water enables the villager to be able to host travelers (by converting their homes into homestays), providing the facility of warm water in summers and winters as well. This opens a new avenue for development using tourism for GHE, where the need is to have accommodation services providing the best of facilities while preserving the originality of these places. This is being done by Mountain Homestays, where their team is setting up the boutique homestays in areas with untapped potential for tourism keeping responsible travel ideology at the forefront.